Posts Tagged ‘negative index of refraction’

The Wikipedia has a very good and brief explanation of various forms or methods of making objects invisible. They cover the historic using special mirrors, camouflage, stealth technology, projection of images and distraction. Of interest in this post is the bending of light around objects using metamaterials that have a negative index of refraction. Various materials exhibiting this property have been engineered at the nanoscale level to bend microwaves to visible light around small objects. David Smith of Duke University has done it for infrared light and in March 2010 Tolga Ergin, et. al. did it with visible light at KIT. (Science Journal) So, as a sci-fi writer invisibility and cloaking devices are definitely on the table.